Posts tagged ‘Democrats’

When Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States, he made a lot of promises. His famous slogans were “Yes we can” and “Change you can believe in”. However, it was obvious from the beginning that his rivals (The Republicans) were going to try to stop him from making all the changes he promised.

He promised sweeping healthcare reforms, and delivered a Healthcare Bill. He also promised major financial reform, and managed to successfully sign a Financial Reform Bill. These were delivered to the American people despite huge opposition from the idiots on the other side (aka The Republicans) and some idiots on his own side (aka the “blue-dog” Democrats).

He has managed to put together a very good stimulus package which is helping America to slowly recover from the mess it was left in. I know that many liberals and progressives are not entirely happy with what Obama has done so far (Guantanamo Bay, anyone?), but I hope they don’t forget how bad it was under George “War president” Bush.

I hope President Obama will be given a second term in office, so he can pass stronger bills to improve the lives of the American people.

Anyway, I would like to talk about the war in Iraq. When Obama was a senator, he voted against the war in Iraq. As President of the United States, he had no choice but to continue the war in order to restore law and order in Iraq. He did, however, promise to bring all the combat troops home from Iraq, and today he has kept that promise.

The last combat troops pulled out of Iraq two weeks ago. The remaining troops, which number 50,000 in total, are there to train the Iraqi army. They will remain there until the end of 2011.

The war in Iraq was launched in March 2003 to disarm Saddam Hussein of his weapons of mass destruction. Just as so many of us predicted before the war began, there were no such weapons in Iraq.

The United States has spent $900bn (£585bn) in seven and a half years of fighting in Iraq, and more than 4,400 American troops have lost their lives. We must not forget that the United Kingdom was also involved in the war, and 179 British soldiers lost their lives in the conflict. In addition to this, over 106,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the war.

I have just watched Obama giving a speech marking the end of combat operations in Iraq. He said he was in awe of the bravery of the troops, and said they will all be looked after when they return home. He also talked about the war in Afghanistan, saying that America will not be involved in open-ended warfare. Just as in Iraq, the Afghanistan security forces will start to take over combat operations in Afghanistan in August 2011.

President Obama may not have been able to implement all the changes which he promised, but he has managed to bring the American combat troops home. I hope he is given the credit he deserves for doing something which was long overdue.